Kaboul, now 28 and representing Tottenham Hotspur, spent a key developmental part of his footballing education at the Stade de l'Abbe-Deschamps and was behind the goal when Ronaldinho made his PSG debut.

The silky-skilled Brazilian was not the game's most valuable player that day, though, but rather Mauricio Pochettino - a centre back like Kaboul - who blasted the ball into the goal, right in front of the impressionable teenage French kid, via a free-kick.

Pochettino may have converted from set-play but the match was ultimately tied 1-1, as Djibril Cisse equalised for the AJA.

"[Pochettino] scored in the goal that I was just behind and I remember it," Kaboul reminisced to Sky Sports recently. "It was a volley from his right foot and it was the first game of Ronaldinho being at PSG. I remember it like it was yesterday and now he is my manager.

"Of course I spoke to him about it and he remembered this goal. That was only 2001, it was not long ago when you think about and now he is my manager."

On what made Pochettino such a key figure to look up to for a young centre back looking to nurture his craft, Kaboul said: "Mauricio was a top defender first of all. A very classy defender.

"We learn a lot from him because he has got experience at this level and we try to put in the game everything he has taught us. [He is helping me] to read the game. To read the game properly and to anticipate stuff.

"I think we have applied this already during the games," he concluded.